Stephen Curry – Fast Breakhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors
Golden State Warriors Fan BlogFri, 09 Dec 2016 13:43:32 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.3One Small Step (Warriors 93, Raptors 97)http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/10/01/one-small-step/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/10/01/one-small-step/#commentsSun, 02 Oct 2016 05:23:57 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/?p=6529The Golden State Warriors journeyed to Vancouver to play Toronto as a part of the NBA Canada series, where they fell to the Raptors 97-93 in a turnover-laden game that clearly showed two teams shaking off a summer's worth of rust.… Continue Reading →

]]>The Golden State Warriors journeyed to Vancouver to play Toronto as a part of the NBA Canada series, where they fell to the Raptors 97-93 in a turnover-laden game that clearly showed two teams shaking off a summer's worth of rust.

It is always nigh impossible to draw significant or meaningful insights from a preseason game in any sport, much less a preseason game that takes place just four days into training camp after an offseason that featured significant player turnover and three stars leaving the country for the Olympic Games. But there were some interesting points to note from this contest, starting with...

Durant's Arrival

I spent the offseason pinching myself, waiting for this moment to arrive; I have to stay, it still felt unbelievable to see Kevin Durant decked out in Warriors blue, taking the floor for the opening tip. Perhaps feeling the heat of the moment, but more likely just shaking off some cobwebs, Durant struggled with his shot and decision making (as did most players on both teams), ending up with 9 points on 2-9 shooting to go along with 4 boards, 3 assists, 1 very impressive block, and 3 turnovers. History will show that his first in-game points as a member of Golden State came on a breakaway dunk with 1:14 left in the first quarter. May many more such points be scored.

Curry's Knee

Stephen Curry elected to sit out the Olympics, opting instead to rehab his ailing knee (and eventually head to Asia for an Under Armor promotional tour). The last time we saw Curry in a real NBA game, he was unable to stick with Kyrie Irving on the defensive end of the floor and unable to shake Kevin Love in isolation on the other end of the floor; suffice it to say, the Curry we saw today looked a lot more mobile. His quickness on the ball and on the defensive end of the floor, his confidence in going to the hoop, and the overall bounce in his step were fantastic to see. He also featured prominently in (for myself at least) the two plays of the game; the first a (slightly overthrown) outlet pass from Draymond Green that he casually turned into an Andre Iguodala alley-oop, and the second an airmailed behind-the-back pass from Andre Iguodala that perfectly found an on-the-bench Curry, who proceeded to immediately fire up a shot (the ball unfortunately rimmed out, and both intended target Durant and the nearby referee chuckled mightily). He also missed a wide open three that he had about 10 seconds to prepare for, thus confirming my theory that Curry shoots better when he has a defender in his grill.

Turnovers and Klay and Draymond

The Warriors only shot 39.3% from the field and and 62% from the line, and also turned the ball over 21 times. This fact wouldn't even merit mention in an early preseason game if it wasn't the bane of the Warriors in seasons past. My father has likened the Warriors' style of play to balancing on the edge of a knife, with just the most minute difference between highlight-reel and head-smacking-turnover. My hope is that, with further emphasis from the coaching staff, the number of turnovers come Tuesday will be in the single digits, if only to make me feel a little less uneasy.

As for the rest of the starters, Klay Thompson came out firing, canning a few triples en route to a game-leading (if inefficient, by his standards) 16 point performance. My biggest concern amongst them remains Draymond Green, whose eventful summer included the NBA Finals loss and an Olympic Games where he couldn't find his way onto the floor. He played 17 minutes and didn't make a field goal, finishing with a pair of points, a pair of rebounds, a pair of steals, a pair of turnovers, and two pairs of personal fouls. Draymond has been the defensive anchor and emotional leader of this franchise for the last two seasons, and if he is out of his element (as he was at the end of the last postseason), the entire team suffers.

The Center(s) of Attention

The Warriors of last season featured Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli as the top two choices at center. This season, both Bogut (Dallas) and Ezeli (Portland) are grazing in greener pastures, with tastefully-named Zaza Pachulia and Shaqtin-a-Fool favorite JaVale McGee in their places. When the Warriors acquired Bogut in that fateful trade that shipped out Monta Ellis, I thought the Warriors had acquired one of the best centers in the league at a very reasonable price. But as the past few years showed, despite his immense defensive presence and his slick passing, Bogut's effectiveness was greatly hampered by his inability to stay on the floor, whether that be to foul trouble or injuries. His heir-apparent (Ezeli) also suffered from injury troubles and had hands that could charitably be described as subpar.

Enter Pachulia and McGee. Zaza might not be Bogut's equal in snarling defensive intensity, and he certainly lacks his passing chops (I counted at least two deflected entry passes in his scant 8 minutes on the floor, in which he finished -7 in ESPN's plus/minus metric). But on a team that intends to start Curry, Thompson, Green, and Durant, all a center really has to do is clean up the glass, wear a scowl on his face to discourage foes from entering the painted area, and stay healthy. The Warriors could do far worse than Zaza, who has no history (knock on wood) of major injuries and can grind down low with the best of 'em.

I've seen JaVale McGee play before, and today was about on par with what I expected (again, given the caveat that this game was essentially a multi-team scrimmage). McGee remains one of the most potent athletes in the entire NBA, with the ability to jump out of the gym and feasibly block any shot. This fact remains both a blessing and a curse, as McGee happily attempts to swat any shot that approaches him out of the arena (often leaving himself hopelessly out of position to box out when a shot invariably rolls off the rim). On the same token, I can count on one hand the number of players who could fumble a pass near the restricted area, recover control of the ball despite the presence of a defender, and turn and finish in a single continuous motion, which JaVale casually accomplished towards the tail end of the first half today. McGee finished the day with 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 blocks, along with some displays of mind blowing athleticism and a few defensive gaffes. My hot take? Given the fact that Damian Jones is not even close to being healthy or ready, and that David West and Anderson Varejao are the only other "centers" currently on the roster, I think JaVale is a shoo-in to make the team, especially given Iguodala's endorsement of his abilities and basketball intelligence. Time will tell if he can channel his immense gifts into a productive package. If it can't happen on a team like the Warriors, filled with elder statesmen and a great coaching staff, it probably won't ever happen.

The Young and Old Ones

The first standout was obviously young(er than me) Patrick McCaw, whose age, slight appearance, and 1990s-era headband belied his savvy and seasoned play. In a game that featured what seemed like hundreds of examples of indecisiveness and/or sloppy passing, McCaw moved the ball with intent, pulled off his best Kawhi Leonard "Sharktopus" impersonation by filching five steals, and shot the ball with confidence, knocking down 5-7 shots and a three on his way to a quietly efficient 11 points. The game never looked too fast for the 20 year old, even when Steve Kerr happily tossed him onto the floor at the end of the first half with the starters. The coaching staff wasn't joking when they said McCaw could contribute right away - his play in the summer league and what I saw tonight were representative of a classic "3-and-D" wing.

Aside from McCaw, Ian Clark looked solid in his limited minutes, nailing both his triples and looking like a very viable Leandro "Blurbosa" replacement. David West also impressed, both with toughness on the glass and in the interior, banging bodies with Toronto's lineup of oversized bodies, but also with his shooting range - I didn't remember him making any threes as a Pacer or a Spur, much less attempting them! If the coaching staff can perform some more Mo Buckets-style sorcery on a capable jump shooter and turn him into a viable three point threat, that is yet another weapon to feature into Steve Kerr's seemingly limitless lineup options. With three bona-fide go-to scorers in the starting lineup, not to mention numerous versatile options coming off the bench, Kerr could feasibly leave one of the Splash Triplets on the floor at all times...a frightening thought for opposing defenses.

Overall, this game answered some questions, posed some new ones, and will forevermore be "the first Durant game," one small step in a road that will be filled with them. We'll see how much growth and learning can happen in a few days, before the Warriors take the floor again on Tuesday against the Clippers at home.

]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/10/01/one-small-step/feed/383The 16-17 Warriors: Champion to Dynastyhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/09/28/16-17-warriors-champion-dynasty/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/09/28/16-17-warriors-champion-dynasty/#commentsWed, 28 Sep 2016 17:37:16 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/?p=6517On Saturday, the Warriors will play the first of 89 preseason games. If there's a hangover from the final three games of the Warriors' record-breaking, runner-up campaign, it has little to do with what actually happened on the court back in June.… Continue Reading →

]]>On Saturday, the Warriors will play the first of 89 preseason games.

If there's a hangover from the final three games of the Warriors' record-breaking, runner-up campaign, it has little to do with what actually happened on the court back in June. For me, the lingering questions are much more existential. Once upon a time, the Warriors' most-meaningless games were given outsized importance -- the summer league championships and pre-season "upsets" of the powerhouse Spurs or Lakers. With the heartbreak of last season, we've now flipped to the opposite end of the spectrum. Winning 73 out of 82 regular season games meant next to nothing in the final 144 minutes of the Warriors' post-season.

In plain technical terms, the regular season still matters. The Warriors will want to secure home court advantage for the entire playoffs, so there's an incentive to snag the NBA's best record. Beyond that, the regular season now matters far more for how the Warriors use the games than whether they win or lose them. We're about to embark on six months of glorified pre-season, made all the more annoying by the hyper-analysis sure to follow every win or loss (of which I'm sure I'll also be guilty). Thankfully, Steve Kerr, his coaching staff and his players seem rightfully focused on the long-haul, having internalized the Finals' bitter lesson. It's not how you start, but how you finish.

With that in mind, I expect the Warriors to focus on three big-picture efforts over the course of the pre-season (both the real one, and the "extended" one).

Rest -- Kerr and company wasted no time in knocking down talk of regular-season win records. While I don't second guess the Warriors' effort at securing the record last year -- Kerr was absolutely right to give his players their shot at a place at history given their fast start -- there's also little doubt that it took a physical and mental toll on them as the season stretched into the early summer. This year, we'll see Kerr give his core players more nights off and likely stick more closely to in-game minute caps. He'll risk losses to inferior teams on back-to-backs, and take his chances with the second unit blowing leads. It will be awkward at times -- purposefully holding the team back, so they peak in June, not January -- but all the core constituencies (coaches, veterans, management) appear on board. The only real victims are the fans, who will be treated to fewer displays of this juggernaut running on all cylinders.

Versatility -- The upside to the Warriors' likely conservatism with minutes will be a forced liberalism in styles of play. Who runs the offense when Curry is given the night off? (Livingston, Green, Iguodala, Durant?) Can a second-unit largely bereft of consistent long-range shooters find ways to score in the post or off pick-and-rolls? (West? A more assertive Livingston? An improved Clark?) What different defensive looks can you throw at the League's long, athletic big-men (Towns, Davis, etc.) who have proven to be the Warriors' toughest cover? (Durant is big enough, but is he strong enough? Pachulia is strong enough, but is he fast enough? McGee is big enough and strong enough, but is he sane enough?)

The regular season should be an extended period of experimentation for Kerr, Brown and Adams. They've been given some of the most talented and versatile players ever assembled on a team -- they should explore fully different ways to use them. And like being immersed in a foreign country is the best way to learn a foreign language, resting key players will be the best way to force the Warriors out of their comfort zone. Maybe the Warriors end up ripping through the playoffs with the line-up we assume will be their best -- Curry/Thompson/Iguodala/Durant/Green. But finding the best ways to use all the other potential bit players is the best insurance against the diversity of potential opponents and the uncertainty of the Warriors' own health. The Warriors lost Games 5, 6 and 7 in part because they were unable to play their typical style with players of diminished capacity (Curry's health, Barnes' slump, Bogut's injury, Green's suspension). The regular season should be an extended testing ground for whether they can be dominant in different ways.

Youth -- Of course, there are limits to how much you can change the inherent nature of a team. A squad full of great shooters likely won't be dominant in the post for a reason, and vice versa. A player capable of covering defensive ground horizontally on the perimeter may not be able to cover defensive ground vertically at the rim. So if the Warriors want to become more versatile and adaptive, their best hope lies with their youth. The previous generation of youngsters was the wild card in the Warriors' ascension. Curry was more than just a shooter, Thompson was more than just an offensive threat, Green was more than just a second-round hustle player. The Warriors' should use the big leads and rest-games this season to accelerate, as quickly as possible, the development of their young talent.

Those youngsters have an intriguing collection of potentially untapped skills. Can Kevon Looney shore up the Warriors' sometimes shaky rebounding, whether he plays at 3, 4 or small-ball 5? Can Ian Clark become the slashing/scoring threat the reserve backcourt currently lacks? Can Patrick McCaw extend the range of the second unit without sacrificing its defensive intensity? Does Damian Jones have the right blend of size, speed and skill to allow the Warriors to play their preferred style with a true big in the middle? There's no time like the present to answer these questions. Kerr should work them into the rotation early -- let them make their mistakes and cut their teeth in real situations. Worst case scenario, they're not ready to contribute when the playoffs roll around. But best case scenario, the Warriors develop their depth and versatility at an accelerated rate.

Big picture, the Warriors' 16-17 season likely will be an exercise in delayed gratification. My guess is the team rarely will look as dominant as people expect them to be. Each loss will raise a chorus doubts; each win will be dismissed to some degree as expected. The real test will begin in mid-April. We've seen the best -- the Jordan Bulls, the Duncan Spurs, the Kobe/Shaq Lakers -- play this game before. It's how you transform a champion into a dynasty.

]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/09/28/16-17-warriors-champion-dynasty/feed/173"Every Day Will Be Media Day"http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/09/26/every-day-media-day/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/09/26/every-day-media-day/#commentsTue, 27 Sep 2016 06:26:52 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/?p=6508The Golden State Warriors had their Media Day today, and despite the immense hype train and media monster that will be tagging along for the remainder of the season, the overall message today was one of endgame-oriented focus and deliberate… Continue Reading →

]]>The Golden State Warriors had their Media Day today, and despite the immense hype train and media monster that will be tagging along for the remainder of the season, the overall message today was one of endgame-oriented focus and deliberate concentration, a far cry from the fiery nature of last offseason. Dubs fans will fondly (or not) remember the numerous doubters that cropped up after the Warriors hoisted the Larry O'Brien trophy at the expense of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2015, from Cavs players lamenting that they were not fully healthy for the finals to Coach Glenn "Doc" Rivers of the Clippers, who claimed the Warriors got lucky with injuries and with not having to play his squad or the Spurs in the playoffs. The Warriors, in turn, responded both off and on the court, embarking on a scorched-earth campaign against the rest of the NBA that yielded a superlative 73-9 regular season before running out of steam and weapons in the playoffs, with the team nearly falling to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals and eventually succumbing in the NBA Finals.

It has been just over three months since the Dubs forlornly walked off the floor at Oracle Arena, falling in that fiercely contested seven game series to the LeBron James-led Cavs. Amidst the varied and visceral hot takes that followed in the immediate aftermath of the loss was a deep undercurrent of doubt. Despite the incredible successes of the previous two seasons (a combined 140 regular season wins, one championship, and a record-breaking 73 win regular season that came up a few plays short in the playoffs), the Warriors stood at a crossroads, with some very difficult decisions to make. Should they stand pat, run it all back with the same squad, trying to maintain the incredible chemistry and camaraderie that characterized the previous two seasons? Or, as owner Joe Lacob promised not minutes after the Dubs left the court, should they shake things up a bit, risk that ever-fragile team dynamic in favor of restocking a cupboard of talent that had run out of ingredients at the worst possible time?

As the cliché goes, the rest is history. Buoyed by an almost unbelievably long-term recruiting cycle that began at the 2010 FIBA World Championships, the Warriors went out and landed Kevin Durant, THE marquee free agent on the market, and a player that ticked every box and fulfilled every fan's ultimate wishlist - a prodigious scorer, a versatile defender, an elite rebounder, and (it must be said) a player we'd prefer to see on our team rather than opposing it. As Andre Iguodala put it, the Finals loss exposed "a couple of holes" in the Warriors' squad but, with the addition of Durant, "we got a monster that will close them all." With the addition of Zaza Pachulia and David West, along with the retention of Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, the Warriors can trot out a rotating cast of superstars without ever taking all of them off the floor at the same time.

This season, it appears the Warriors are keeping their eyes on the ultimate prize, which is winning a championship. Anderson Varejao, who had the unique fortune/misfortune of being a member of both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors last season (and has yet to decide whether or not to accept his Cavs championship ring), said in no uncertain terms that "this team needs to win the championship." Draymond Green, never one to mince words, opined: "To be quite frank with you, I don't want to win 74 games, 75 games. It's brutal." Head coach Steve Kerr, in an interview with Tim Kawakami, said that the Warriors are indeed proud of their record-breaking regular season, but also qualified that statement with the comment that the team would "...rather have the [championship] banner that isn’t hanging over there...so as great of an accomplishment as 73 was, it’s still about winning the ring." And Stephen Curry, ever the pragmatist, pondered how there could possibly be more pressure this year as compared to last year, when the Warriors were defending both a championship and their credibility as an elite basketball team.

That fact, at its core, is why I am so darned optimistic when it comes to this season and this team. After winning the championship in 2015 and starting the following regular season by reeling off 24 consecutive wins, the Warriors played the rest of the year with a massive target on their backs. They continually took the best shot each team had to offer, while also facing the immense weight of history as they inched closer to the hallowed 72 win mark set by Michael Jordan and the iconic 1995-1996 Bulls. Even with the addition of Kevin Durant (which ruffled a few feathers around the NBA, from other teams to the league office itself), how could the other 29 NBA franchises possibly throw more at the Warriors? How can the target on the Warriors' backs possibly be bigger than it was last year?

The modern NBA is littered with "superteams" that failed to coalesce and play to their fullest potential. The LeBron-Wade-Bosh-led Miami Heat struggled with their identity until circumstances forced Wade to defer his on-the-ball dominance to LeBron. The Kobe-Shaq-Payton-Malone Lakers never found their identity and were casually ousted in five games by the tightly-knit Detroit Pistons. The Garnett-Allen-Pierce Celtics fared better than most, but the players only came together in the later stages of their careers, and for all their successes only produced a single championship in 2008. The Warriors this season, at least on paper, suffer from none of the downsides of these teams. Durant, Curry, Green, and Thompson are squarely in or approaching their primes, and all of them have historically played the game of basketball in a very team-oriented and selfless way; the trio of Curry, Green, and Thompson were all willing passers a season ago, and Curry himself said that Kevin Durant has a very high basketball IQ and wants to play the game the right way, which fits right in with the rest of the Warriors. And arguably most importantly, this is a team that truly wanted to come together in this manner. Durant wanted to come to Golden State, and the Warriors desperately wanted him to join their team; that alignment of desires and principles, not to mention the sheer quantity of possibilities this opens up for Steve Kerr and the rest of the Warriors coaching staff, gives me great hope for this latest superteam.

Attendance at Media Day today was, by all accounts, incredibly robust, and as Adam tweeted earlier, "every day will be media day" for this once-in-a-lifetime team. Expectations are sky high for this upcoming season, and the Warriors, while being more cautious about the manner in which they expend themselves, are doing little to downplay what they expect from themselves. As Shaun Livingston said, "...I'm happy to have all of these expectations. You'd rather have it this way." Time alone will tell whether the Warriors can meet these lofty expectations and bring home another championship. The quest begins anew starting tomorrow - go Warriors.

]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/09/26/every-day-media-day/feed/121Disintegration (Warriors 105, Thunder 133)http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/05/22/disintegration-warriors-105-thunder-133/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/05/22/disintegration-warriors-105-thunder-133/#commentsMon, 23 May 2016 06:13:12 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/?p=6371"A break here or there and I thought we had them." Steve Kerr started his post-Game 3 press conference with a quip, no different than countless press conferences before it. Except this time, no one laughed. For the perpetually loose Warriors,… Continue Reading →

]]>"A break here or there and I thought we had them." Steve Kerr started his post-Game 3 press conference with a quip, no different than countless press conferences before it. Except this time, no one laughed. For the perpetually loose Warriors, things are now serious. The Thunder have outplayed them decisively in Oklahoma City's two victories. Draymond Green may be facing a suspension in Game 4 for delivering a leg to Stephen Adams' groin for the second game in a row. But above all, for the first time in a long time, the Warriors looked like they lost their will to fight. They disintegrated in an utterly brutal second quarter -- losing their poise following the Green incident, giving up 38 points and closing out the quarter with 2-for-23 run from the field. Then they doubled-down on disaster -- allowing Oklahoma City to score 45 points on 77% shooting in the third quarter. It was a bad enough stretch to make you forget about 73 wins, and to make you question whether this team's supreme confidence has turned from a strength to a weakness.

While Kerr started off his press conference with a joke, the remainder was dramatically less sanguine. "Bad shots, quick shots, no movement. We weren't forcing them to defend at all. That's death." In short, Kerr concluded, "we got our butts kicked." The story of how the Warriors saw a 40-40 tie with 8:18 to go in the second devolve into a 117-80 deficit at the end of the third quarter (a 77-40 run in 20 minutes, for those keeping score at home) has its roots earlier in the evening. The Warriors spent much of the first quarter getting high-quality looks. They missed some wide-open attempts, but steadily worked their way back into the game. The reserve unit at the end of the first and beginning of the second played the best defense of the night -- Andre Iguodala and Ian Clark, in particular -- and brought the Warriors back from the brink. With 8:52 remaining, Kerr subbed Thompson and Green for Clark and Iguodala, and the free-fall began. The Warriors' starters immediately started forcing quick shots, missed them and got pummeled on the glass by the Thunder. Oklahoma City then pushed the ball off the Warriors' misses and racked up a series of easy and decisive transition buckets. In the midst of the run -- down by 8 with 5:56 to go -- Green got called for the flagrant kick against Steven Adams.

All takes on the kick are bound to be various degrees of hot, so here's mine. I think the kick was intentional, but not intended to harm Adams. Green -- and the rest of the Warriors -- had once again let themselves become rattled by poor officiating, and the perceived unequal treatment when going to the basket. They had missed a number of point-blank looks, and were already working the refs over what they felt were blown calls. Green, driving against Adams, exaggerated the contact to make sure that a foul was called. The leg-kick was an unnatural move, but one motivated by malice towards the officials, not towards Adams. Does that make it any better? From the suspension standpoint, yes. From the mental toughness standpoint, not really. The Warriors throughout the playoffs have let the referees rattle them. They've spent more time whining than I can remember over their two-year run, and the sense of entitlement doesn't look good on them. There have been some horrible calls, but a historically-great team should play through them with less drama than this. For a team that talks so much about focus, they keep falling for the same distraction.

If you were to watch the remainder of the second quarter after the kick without context, you would have guessed that the Thunder were the defending NBA champs, not the Warriors. The Thunder channeled whatever anger they may have felt towards Green into a relentless open-court attack. They executed with even greater urgency. The Warriors simply faded. They lost the physical battles for rebounds, were slow on defensive rotations, and had no chance on 50/50 balls. Kerr went to his usual lifeline -- the death line-up -- with 3 minutes left in the quarter, and the Thunder hung another 12 points on them. The most alarming part of this loss was the lack of poise from the Warriors' core when the team needed it the most. They're supposed to look like they've been here before.

But maybe they haven't. There's no doubt in my mind that the Thunder are a better team than the injury-depleted Cavs squad the Warriors faced in the Finals last season. The Warriors haven't faced a team in the playoffs with two dominant scorers. The athleticism of the Thunders' bigs also frustrates the inside-outside game on which the Warriors' ball-movement depends. The Thunder are better able to exploit the Warriors' mistakes than any team they've encountered up to this point. They're able to force the Warriors into less-than-ideal shots, and then punish them for those poor choices at the other end. Even when the Warriors put the ball back into Curry's hands in the third quarter -- rather than playing him off the ball as he was for much of the second -- the Warriors still seemed incapable of stopping the Thunder from running the ball back at them (Oklahoma City finished with a 29-13 advantage on fast break points). In the past, when the Warriors' offense has been sloppy or cold, they've been able to rely on their defense to keep them in the game. In Game 3, the Thunder blew right through it.

The Warriors' recurring Game 3 nightmare ended the same way as the other series-shifting losses that came before it. Down 2-1, there was talk of watching tape, getting back to basics, and "being themselves." In those earlier binds, the Warriors found something extra -- a strategic switch paired with a deeper level of focus. In less than 48 hours, we'll find out if this historically great team can elevate its game again. This time, the question isn't whether the Warriors can stop playing down to their opponent. The question is whether the Warriors can rise up to the Thunder's level.

]]>The Warriors were loose before Game 2, heading into arguably the toughest must-win game of the Steve Kerr era. "When times get tough," Draymond Green observed afterwards, "that's when you've got to be yourself." The Warriors' looseness can be deceptive. It teeters on the edge of carelessness, can be misread as arrogance and at times runs frustratingly close to obliviousness. These are serious moments in big games against fearsome opponents. Why are the Warriors smiling, laughing, shimmying? Because Stephen Curry is on their team.

There are two stories to be written about how the Warriors won Game 2. The first story is about how the Warriors edged ahead of Oklahoma City in the first half and early third quarter, building a slight lead while getting back to the aggressive defensive and selfless offense that has been their calling card all year. The second story is about how Stephen Curry, in 1:58 seconds, turned that relatively close game into a blowout. The second story is more dramatic -- complete with a classic Curry-revenge barrage of threes -- but the first story is likely more important for the fate of the series.

In Game 1, Andre Iguodala and Festus Ezeli combined for 9 points in 41 minutes. In Game 2, they scored 26 in 40 minutes. The difference is as good a metric as any for measuring the Warriors success in returning to a ball-movement oriented offense. On Monday night, when Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green struggled to get their own games going offensively against the Thunders' aggressive defense, the Warriors stopped moving the ball and awkwardly forced their offense. As a result, the supporting cast faded into the courtside crowd (except I'm sure they would have caught Curry had he plunged towards them). In Game 2, the Warriors struggled with turnovers early -- well-intentioned passes that didn't quite work -- but finally seemed to find their ball-movement rhythm in the second quarter. The game-shifting run at the end of the quarter, the prelude to Curry's explosion in the third, was the opposite of the Warriors' struggles on Monday, and may end up being a decisive shift of momentum in the series.

Towards the end of the second quarter, the Warriors started their run with a line-up of Curry, Thompson, Green, Andre Iguodala and Festus Ezeli. For Ezeli, after a disastrous Game 1 and some rocky first quarter minutes, the extended stretch was a crucial opportunity. Over nearly 5 minutes, he finally settled into the flow of the game, stopped forcing the action and found the right balance of energy and aggressiveness. The Warriors -- suddenly with an athletic big body ready to match Steven Adams at both ends -- immediately looked like a different team. The Thunder no longer dominated the glass, the interior lanes which had opened at times on Monday were physically slammed closed, and the Warriors' crisp switching gave Kevin Durant and company fits when they tried to move the ball. Off a series of stops and deflections (a frustrated Durant finished with 8 turnovers), the Warriors got into the open court and used the disarray created by that pressure to find high quality shots. Parts of the team that had looked lost on Monday were fully engaged. When Kerr opted for the death line-up in the final 40 seconds of the quarter, swapping Barnes for Ezeli, the Warriors capped an 8-0 run that set the tone for the rest of the night. The Warriors finished the quarter with a combined 4 points from Curry, Thompson and Green -- usually a recipe for disaster -- but found themselves scoring 30 points total and adding a point to the lead. The team finally looked like itself again.

Once the cohesiveness of the Warriors' ball movement returned, they unlocked some of the finer points of their attack -- like creating open looks for Curry. In the third quarter, the Warriors finally managed to get Curry the extra step or two of separation he had lacked in Game 1. Curry's teammates -- Green in particular (4 assists in the quarter) -- made the most of those opportunities. With 7:09 left in the third, Green found Curry for an open three. Curry then stole the ball from Durant, got another open look and took a hard foul on an already sore elbow (more on that below). After knocking down the three free throws, Curry had seen the ball go through the hoop enough times in quick succession to be truly dangerous. Green found him on the next possession for another three, then Iguodala located him for the same result. For the fourth and final three of the barrage, Curry worked his own way free off the dribble. Just like that -- 1:58 seconds later -- Curry had outscored the Thunder 15-2. Vengeance was swift and final. What had been a resilient Thunder team finally looked bewildered and beaten.

The Warriors' looseness ultimately is a sucker punch. Brass knuckles hidden in a foam finger. On Wednesday, when the Warriors finally started connecting on their passes and executing on the plays that were turnovers on Monday, it sent an entirely different energy through the team. So while there's nothing more ill-advised than Curry plunging into the stands to try to save a loose ball, you have to admire his motivation (as explained post-game): he saw a teammate open at the free throw line and thought he could fling it back for an easy lay-up. This is a team always striving for the hard pass that leads to the easy basket. It's not the turnovers off failed attempts that kill them. It's when they stop trying to move the ball and start settling for isolation plays and quick shots, as they did in the second half of Game 1.

Ultimately, for the 12th time this season, the Warriors made sure that a loss didn't turn into a streak. Their amazing run of no back-to-back losses is a tribute to their mental toughness. When they're pushed, they push back harder. Under pressure, their bonds grow tighter. So while Oklahoma City returns to the friendly confines of their home with a 1-1 split, the Warriors team they'll face in Sunday's Game 3 won't be any easier. If there's anything this Warriors team loves more than driving the Oracle crowd nuts, it's silencing opposing arenas. Stephen Curry and the Warriors finally got loose, and now they're ready to run wild.

]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/05/19/get-loose-warriors-118-thunder-91/feed/330Such Great Heights (Warriors 112, Spurs 101)http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/04/08/great-heights-warriors-112-spurs-101/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/04/08/great-heights-warriors-112-spurs-101/#commentsFri, 08 Apr 2016 08:35:45 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/?p=6249Stephen Curry was blunt in his post-game comments: "You all know what we're chasing." He's right -- the Warriors have made no secret of their ambition to set the NBA's all-time regular-season win record, or to repeat as NBA champions… Continue Reading →

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) smiles in the final minutes of the fourth quarter of their NBA game against the San Antonio Spurs at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, April 7, 2016. The Warriors won 112-101.(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Stephen Curry was blunt in his post-game comments: "You all know what we're chasing." He's right -- the Warriors have made no secret of their ambition to set the NBA's all-time regular-season win record, or to repeat as NBA champions -- but there's still a goal we don't know. This team is chasing a standard of excellence that isn't measured in wins or trophies, but in pure basketball execution. It may not be quantified, but it's the ultimate force behind the Warriors' accomplishments. So while the Warriors' feats seem increasingly unbelievable -- the team shot 80% from the field (16-20 overall; 15-17 from inside the arc) in the decisive third quarter of Thursday's 112-101 win over the Spurs -- their magic becomes reality because atop every new peak, the Warriors believe that they can still climb higher. This is a team running on a potent mixture: they are self-aware, unafraid to embrace the historical moment, but unconscious, just doing the things they always do (and having fun while doing it). Or as Klay Thompson put it, "It's just basketball. I've been doing this my whole life." The result is once-in-a-lifetime greatness.

After the home losses to Boston and Minnesota -- nits to be picked, in a season when the Warriors can afford to be picky -- Thursday's match-up against the only other team the Warriors consider a peer was not just an opportunity for their 70th win, but a prime test for their general strength. Could the Warriors flip the switch, shake off boredom and bore down on a quality opponent? Their answer was a decisive yes, and then some. After opening the game too amped up, and trading the lead back and forth for much of the first quarter, the Warriors finally settled into a rhythm by the quarter's end. Kerr noted after the game that he wasn't concerned at the start because the Warriors were executing, just overzealously. His faith was quickly rewarded. After shooting only 38% in the first quarter, the Warriors quickly improved to 60% in a well-rounded second quarter. Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson led the team in scoring for the quarter (with 8, 7 and 7 respectively), while the Warriors moved crisply and the ball hummed around the court (11 out of their 12 field goals were assisted). Curry scored only 3 points in nearly 6 second quarter minutes and had no assists, but the statistics of his teammates capture the defensive pressure his presence drew away from them. With San Antonio focused on keeping Curry locked up, the rest of the Warriors had the room they needed to get free. Barnes was particularly effective, going 3-3 for the quarter, including 2-2 from behind the arc.

But as encouraging as the Warriors' second quarter may have been -- they entered the half up 7 points -- it was only prelude to the third quarter's dismantling of the Spurs' defense. In these teams' second meeting, Andrew Bogut and Tim Duncan both sat, freeing the Spurs to play a modified small-ball line-up against the Warriors. The Spurs defense did an excellent job in that game trapping Curry, using Tony Parker, Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard to force the Warriors into turnovers, stagnant offense and bad shots. Curry criticized his performance in that game -- specifically calling out his difficulty reading the defense and his rushed efforts to adapt. On Thursday, he was ready. The Spurs had Tim Duncan back but were without Boris Diaw. As a result, they couldn't play as small and fast as they did previously, and had to worry about situations where Duncan switched onto Curry or had to close out to deny him a three. Whether due to Curry's preparation, the Spurs being a step slower, or both factors, Curry made sure that he didn't get trapped in the corners the same way he did in the prior game. Instead, Curry read the defense and identified lanes for penetration. Rather than struggling to get free from behind the arc, Curry used what the defense gave him and repeatedly blew past Spurs defenders attempting to overplay him. Curry's 15-point third quarter line is an abnormal one in that he only made one three -- but went 6-6 from inside the arc, mostly on lay-ups.

Once Curry cracked the Spurs' defensive pressure, it was as if an entire reservoir of pent-up offensive energy rushed through. The Warriors' centers -- Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli -- went a combined 5-5 off mostly back-door lobs. Green bullied his way to 6 points in the quarter. While Leonard smothered Thompson, holding him to only 1 field goal attempt in the quarter, the rest of the Warriors had their way with almost no defensive resistance. The Spurs' elite defense can bottle up one player, and may be good enough to slow down two, but can't hold back the Warriors' five-pronged attack when they're operating as a fully integrated whole. Once the Warriors established their preferred tempo and moved the ball without many unforced errors (they had a tolerable 15 turnovers), it was only a matter of time before they started finding high-quality shots in the spaces created by Curry's and Thompson's gravitational pulls. When the third quarter ended, the Spurs looked shell-shocked -- down 18, and their defense blown apart from the inside out.

The Warriors' ultra-efficient offense was only part of their success story. At the defensive end, Bogut asserted himself repeatedly, denying the Spurs the easy looks that the Celtics and Wolves had in the paint. The Spurs lack interior players with the quickness the Warriors saw in their two prior defeats, so playing a traditional big-on-big line-up favors the Warriors. Off the variety of blocks, deflections and changed-shots forced by Bogut, the Warriors were able to get out into the open court, furthering their control of the game's tempo. Green likewise did an excellent job tying up LaMarcus Aldridge -- slowed by a dislocated finger in the first half -- and made sure that the Spurs' big man never saw enough open mid-range looks to settle into any comfortable rhythm. While Leonard bullied his way to a team-high 23 points, he was forced by the Warriors' team defense to create many of those opportunities himself -- the opposite of the Spurs' preferred attack.

While the Spurs put up a fight in the fourth quarter, reducing the margin of defeat to something more respectable looking than the actual game, there was no ambiguity in the demeanor of San Antonio's players or its coach. In the season-long chess-match between the NBA's two best teams, the Warriors had delivered a threatening move. Not quite a check-mate, but definitely a check. The pressure now shifts back to the Spurs to demonstrate that they can find a way to slow down not just Curry, but the entirety of a Warriors' attack at full strength once again for the first time in months. With Barnes confidently connecting on his threes, Iguodala and Ezeli regaining their timing and wind, and Bogut shaking off whatever the ailment of the week may be, the Warriors are a much deeper and more complicated threat. Will Duncan sit again in favor of Diaw? Does Leonard get assigned full time to controlling Curry? Can Parker and Ginobili (a quiet 16 combined points) force the Warriors to adapt to their games? If the Spurs are going to protect their perfect home-court record, extend the Warriors' 19-year regular-season San Antonio losing streak, and gain the momentum for any future playoff meeting, they have 72 hours to plot their next move.

Ultimately, the Spurs provide the best foil for the Warriors' greatness because they provide the greatest challenge. But the Warriors have entered that rarefied level of performance where they can be appreciated by anyone -- not just basketball fans -- for their excellence. When they are at their best, as they were for much of Thursday, they look like they're playing a different game. They are faster, smoother, more cohesive. The complexity of their attack makes the game look simpler. The harder they focus, the easier it all looks. As confident as they are in their abilities, they're humble enough to know that they are on the cusp of a rare opportunity. They're not going to waste it.

]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2016/04/08/great-heights-warriors-112-spurs-101/feed/574Bay Area News GroupCurry's Absence and Kerr's Choices (Warriors 98, Pacers 104)http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2015/02/23/currys-absence-and-kerrs-choices-warriors-98-pacers-104/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2015/02/23/currys-absence-and-kerrs-choices-warriors-98-pacers-104/#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 10:06:17 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/?p=4710"The Warriors are better with Stephen Curry" may be the truism to end all truisms. But dismissing Sunday's 98-104 loss to the Indiana Pacers as purely the result of Curry's absence ignores a valuable glimpse into the Warriors' weaknesses. Without… Continue Reading →

]]>"The Warriors are better with Stephen Curry" may be the truism to end all truisms. But dismissing Sunday's 98-104 loss to the Indiana Pacers as purely the result of Curry's absence ignores a valuable glimpse into the Warriors' weaknesses. Without Curry, there's more stress placed on every aspect of the Warriors' game -- offense, defense and even Kerr's rotations. How and why the team strained without Curry will remain meaningful, even when Curry returns.

Curry is the ultimate enabler for the Warriors' offense -- drawing defensive attention, finding his teammates with terrific looks and single-handedly breaking opponents' will, as he did with the Spurs on Friday. This season, Curry's defense has begun to catch up to his offense, allowing the Warriors to play him almost exclusively in single, man-to-man coverage. Given Curry's all-around contributions, there's no way the Warriors could hope to simply slot Shaun Livingston into the MVP-contender's spot and play the same style of basketball. The Warriors needed to adapt their game against the Pacers to compensate for Curry's absence. Kerr and his staff had previously done great jobs of absorbing the losses of other Warriors, but they stumbled in their first attempt to win without Curry.

The Third Scorer -- Curry and Klay Thompson are the Warriors' offensive leaders. No one questions their place in the system. But against the NBA's best teams or when the Warriors are missing one of their guards, the team needs a consistent third scorer. On Friday against the Spurs, Barnes and Iguodala combined for terrific offensive production. But many of those points came from the Spurs' defense collapsing on Curry. Without Curry to suck the defense in, both players are more awkward options. Iguodala managed 14 points (on an inefficient 4-11 line), but much of his production came in the open court off defensive stops, not in set offense. Barnes' attempts to score in the half court, but failed miserably (3-11, 6 points). Lee also is a natural contender for the Warriors' third option, but his offense is also largely dependent on a skilled point guard creating pick-and-roll lanes or back-door opportunities (Curry has no trouble creating those looks; Livingston has succeeded at times, but not on Sunday, stumbling in a golden opportunity to break out of his recent slump). Without Curry, Lee scored most of his 6 points by scrapping for put-backs and loose balls, not by running any structured offense.

Oddly, Kerr gave only 3 minutes to the player who has most consistently filled the role of the third scorer for the Warriors this season -- Marreese Speights. Unlike Iguodala, Speights has a scorers mentality and is comfortable working for his shot when the ball rotates to him. Unlike Barnes, Speights can use his bulk to work inside against strong and wide opposing front lines (like Hibbert and West). Unlike Lee, Speights still has confidence in his mid-range jump shot, and can use that threat to keep defenders unsettled in half-court sets. Despite all these advantages -- and an active stretch right before halftime during which the Warriors made up ground -- Speights saw zero action during the decisive second half. Following a 17 points, 21 minute run against the Kings to start the month, Speights has seen his minutes steadily drop. With the decreased playing time, his productivity has suffered. The memories of Mo Buckets are fading fast. Two factors have combined to limit Speights' minutes -- Kerr giving more minutes to Lee, and the Lee/Speights frontcourt tandem not performing well. As a result, Kerr has taken to playing one or the other big man, and has been favoring Lee of late. That preference may make sense against some teams -- particularly those with slow and/or weak defensive 5s that Lee can abuse with small ball -- but against the big and skilled front line of the Pacers, Speights likely would have been a better fit.

The Weak Links -- During the early season win-streak, some of the Warriors' most spectacular moments came when 5 interchangeable and versatile players integrated to form a seamless defensive whole. Opponents could force switches, but the new defender would be just as capable as the last. Even when reserves rotated in, the Warriors were able to maintain the intensity of their defensive focus. But with the return of David Lee and the resurgence of Leandro Barbosa's offense, Kerr has gone away from his "switch everything" defensive squads. In their place have emerged reserve line-ups with two below average defenders that are constantly exploited and abused by opponents. Sunday was no exception, with the Pacers' guards abusing Barbosa on the perimeter and the entire team making use of the lanes and open spots created by Lee's lazy rotations or non-sensical help efforts. The Warriors may be good enough defensively to hide either Lee or Barbosa -- but not both.

In an effort to boost the Warriors' offensive production, the coaching staff has weakened the true identity of the team -- it's smothering defense. Earlier in the season, the starters would build a lead, and then the bench would blow it wide open. Recently, the Warriors have fallen into the more familiar pattern of building a lead with the starters, then giving it back early in the second quarter with the reserve-heavy line-up. Kerr walked the Warriors into that trap again in the second quarter against the Pacers by playing not just Barbosa and Lee together, but also Brandon Rush. With Iguodala and Barnes as the only average or above defenders on the court, the Pacers jump-started an 18-4 run. Holiday didn't get minutes until the second half (where he played well) and Ezeli never made it off the bench. By trying to pack the line-up with scorers, Kerr may have ended up undercutting the Curry-less Warriors best chance to score -- fast break opportunities off stops and steals. The inroads the Warriors were able to make later in the game came largely from defensive stops.

Too Much of a Good Thing -- With Curry out, Klay Thompson had a bright green light to shoot. But just because he was going to get a high volume of shots did not mean that Thompson should become just another volume shooter. Part of Thompson's 12-28 night from the field is the Pacers' excellent defense. But part of it also is attributable to Thompson settling for outside shots or forcing up ill-advised ones. Since his 37-point quarter, Thompson's shooting discipline has been unraveling a bit. It's hard to criticize him too much for the performance against the Pacers because there weren't many other options and he hit some of those ill-advised looks to keep the Warriors in the game. Still, Thompson was so dominant earlier in the season attacking the rim and working in the mid-range. It's frustrating to see him -- whether from fatigue or loss of focus -- revert to just being an outside threat. The refs seemed willing to send Thompson to the line, but late in the game Thompson let the Pacers' defenders off easy by not attacking the basket.

The three problems above were made worse by Curry's absence, but they're also issues the team will need to confront when Curry returns. Can the Warriors get consistent offensive production from Iguodala, Barnes, Lee and Green? Or will they just cross their fingers for more games like the win over San Antonino rather than the loss against Indiana? Will Kerr start giving more minutes to better defenders on the bench as Lee and Barbosa are increasingly targeted by opponents? And can those defenders produce the stops, steals and fast breaks necessary to compensate for their offensive shortcomings? Finally, does Thompson have the endurance and focus to be the unstoppable offensive weapon we've seen at times this season? Or will he settle for being the guy that lost to Curry in the finals of the three-point contest? Kerr has his work cut out for him as he tries to juggle these issues and trade-offs through the final third of the season. Curry's absence just highlights the decision-points, and raises the stakes of deciding wrong.

]]>Stephen Curry got mad -- then he got even. In the first quarter and a half against the Spurs, Curry faced the usual swarming, grabbing, harassing defense Gregg Popovich has always deployed against him. The refs let the Spurs' physical play go largely unchecked, but at the other end blew a few questionable whistles against the Warriors. Down 41-42 with 5 minutes left in the half, Curry finally hit his breaking point. After being called for a touch foul on Tony Parker, Curry went ballistic. Face red, fists pumping and mouth jawing, Curry basically demanded that the refs give him a technical. They obliged him, and gave one to his coach too for good measure. That moment of raw emotion may have cost the Warriors two points, but it ended up costing the Spurs the game.

Following the Curry and Kerr technicals, the Warriors suddenly snapped out of their sluggish post-All Star daze and started pushing the tempo. While the entire team looked re-energized, Curry looked downright possessed. He only scored two baskets for the remainder of the half, but they both brought the roof down in the Arena and gutted whatever mysterious control Popovich's defensive schemes had been able to exert over the Warriors' star nearly his entire career. Curry executed a methodically cold step-back three against Parker, then stared down the Spurs bench as he walked calmly across the floor, like an action hero strolling nonchalantly away from an exploding building. A few moments later, Curry picked off an entry pass to Parker, raced the full length of the court, split the Spurs' transition defense with a stunning behind the back move and laid in the ball at full speed. Curry roared at the Oracle crowd; the Oracle crowd roared back. There was still a half yet to play and the Warriors had just managed to claw back into the lead, but the game was over. The Warriors would not be bullied, bruised or brushed aside by the Spurs on Friday night. After years of being hunted by the Spurs' defenders, Curry became the predator.

The Warriors 110-99 win isn't a perfect measuring stick for how much they've grown over the first half of the season, due mainly to the Spurs being on the tail end of a hard-fought back-to-back, but the contrast with the Warriors' first home loss of the year is pretty stark. In that game, the Warriors struggled to defeat the Spurs' swarming of Curry. They turned the ball over too much, got too little from the rest of the team and generally looked hesitant when pushed to execute. Fast-forward three months, and the Warriors look like a far more adaptable, aggressive and dangerous team. Curry was constantly moving and rarely trapped. He repeatedly sucked the Spurs' defense into the middle of the court, then kicked the ball out to the wings for wide-open threes. He pulled low-post defenders up to meet him, then ran back-door lobs. He controlled the game in a way we've seen him do against lesser teams, but not the defending champs.

While Curry's individual performance deserves all the cliche and hyperbole you can heap upon it, equally important -- if not more so -- for the Warriors' championship hopes is the impact Curry's game had on his teammates. Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala, often question marks when the Warriors look for people other than Curry and Thompson to step up, combined for 30 points on 12-19 shooting. They both played smart, aggressive and confident games. Curry (and others) got them the ball in spots where they felt comfortable, and Barnes and Iguodala acted decisively when the ball found its way to them. Both key parts of the Warriors' offensive plan worked. It's not just enough for Curry to draw the attention and then kick the ball. The recipients need to be ready to make the most of their opportunities. Average teams can slow down one of the Warriors' scorers. Top defensive teams may be able to slow down two of them. But no team should be able to beat the Warriors when they're getting efficient, high-volume offense from their third, fourth and fifth options. The Warriors' success starts with Curry, but it culminates in the effortlessly unselfish ball-movement that makes every single player on the floor a scoring weapon.

The Warriors' offensive outbursts were spectacular, but the defense also played its usual central role. After a shaky stretch with the reserves in late first and early second quarters, Green and Bogut returned to rip apart the gears of the Spurs' offensive machine. All the starters defended well, but not with the same gusto as the Warriors 4/5 wrecking crew. At one point, Green literally ripped the ball away from an unsuspecting Aron Baynes. He also took personal offense to some early baskets by Boris Diaw, and guarded him with vendetta-like intensity for the rest of the night. Bogut was his usual rugged best, engaging in an old-school dirty-trick brawl against Tim Duncan. One of my favorite parts of the recent Warriors-Spurs match-ups is watching Bogut and Duncan repeatedly punch each other in the low post with no calls from the ref. They're both masters at sneaking in a jab when the ref doesn't have an angle, or smacking an arm across an opponent's face in the scrum for a loose ball. The numbers capture how important the Warriors' defense was to securing victory. In the decisive third quarter the Warriors shot only 46% and scored only 27 points -- but they held the Spurs to 20% shooting and 13 points. Parker was a ghost, Ginobili a non-factor and Duncan grew so frustrated with Bogut's defense he committed an intentional foul in the backcourt to whine at the refs and check himself out of the game. For a change, it was the Spurs who looked flustered and answerless.

One game does not revolutionize the dynamic of the Warriors-Spurs match-up. Until the Warriors string together multiple wins -- say, over a seven-game series -- the Spurs will still be their chief tormentors, their older, wiser brothers always getting the last laugh. But the way the Warriors won Friday's game against the Spurs may go a long way to leveling the competition between the two teams. The Warriors found a way not just to get by against the Spurs' defensive plan, but to break it apart and exploit it. At the other end, it was the Warriors forcing the Spurs into mistakes and bad shots. Popovich will come back with something new. He always does, and the early rounds of the playoffs are littered with eliminated teams that underestimated the Spurs. But at least for one night, Steve Kerr's Warriors looked like they were beating Popovich and the Spurs at their own game.

]]>All you need to know about Stephen Curry's 51-point outburst in the Warriors' 128-114 comeback win against the Dallas Mavericks was captured in Steve Kerr's response to one of Curry's shots. In a great bit of camera work, you see Kerr -- one of the NBA's all-time best long-range shooters -- pacing the sideline. He stops as Curry pulls up for the shot, his eyes grow a tiny bit wider, he leans back ever so slightly, and then he just starts shaking his head. He turns around and walks away, head still swinging. As a basketball fan, it's a privilege to watch the jaw-dropping performances Curry has been providing on a nearly nightly basis this season. Even when measured against Curry's own best work, this show for the Oracle crowd was pretty special.

Part of the drama for Curry's big night was created by the Warriors' own poor play to start the game. In a dreadful first quarter, the Warriors spotted the Mavs a 22-point lead, trailing by 40-18 with just a minute left in the quarter. The Warriors' looked disorganized on defense, doubling players unnecessarily and losing their men as they scrambled to cover on switches and rotations. My best guess is the Warriors' defense success against Sacramento the night before was to blame. Against Sacramento, a team that runs lots of isolations and is slow to pass out of pressure, the Warriors were able to run an extra man at the ball with impunity. They got strip after strip, and never had to worry about the Kings making a smart pass and finding the open man. When they came out against Dallas with the same ball-hawking approaching, the smart and well-coached Mavs ate them alive -- getting lay-ups and wide-open shots all quarter. Kerr rightfully blamed himself post-game for not having the team in a better mindset to start the game. By the second quarter, the Warriors had noticeably toned down their defense. And by the second half, mostly man-to-man coverage had returned and the Warriors' defense clamped down on the Mavericks' best weapons.

Before we get back to Curry's performance -- which could be better captured in music than prose, given its effortless fluidity and rapturous crescendos -- Draymond Green's defense against Dirk Nowitzki also deserves some special attention. Like Stephen Jackson reincarnated (except without all the baggage), Green hung himself on Dirk as soon as the Mavs' star started looking for the ball. Green used his length to pressure Dirk to adjust his shot ever so slightly, and his bulk to ensure that Dirk couldn't have his way in the post. Dirk -- a seven-footer with an unbelievably soft touch -- is almost an unguardable offensive player. But it's as if Green was created as his inverse, armed with an equally improbable mix of length, strength and quickness needed to neutralize Nowitzki's advantage. The end result of their collision was a rough night for Dirk -- 15 points, 4-15 shooting, 3 rebounds, 2 turnovers -- but a treat for basketball fans interested in watching two masters of their crafts battle it out.

But back to Curry. 51 points in 37 minutes. It took him 48 minutes to get his career-high 54 two seasons ago (a game the Warriors lost, incidentally). His percentages -- 16-26 from the field; 10-16 from behind the arc -- are other worldly. When you break them down, he shot 60% from two-point range -- and then did even better (62.5%) from three. Some of his looks when he started heating up in the third quarter came courtesy of big Bogut screens, but when Bogut took an early trip to the bench with four fouls, it was largely up to Curry to create for himself. He compensated by simply pulling up from a distance at which no sane defender would think he would attempt a shot. When he started draining those looks, and defenders pulled out on him, he started blowing past them for penetration and trips to the line. Players talk about seeing the game around them slow down when they're in a zone. Curry gets so hot, and is so masterful with the ball in his hands, that he projects that slow-motion sense for viewers of a game. When he's in one of his zones, he just slides to wherever he wants to be on the court while defenders seem to move at half-speed in a futile attempt to stop him. He pulls up for jump shots while opposing players watch in horror, seemingly bolted to the ground. In reality, the defenders are working their hardest -- the Mavs played an excellent game -- but Curry's simply bending the laws of time, space and basketball in ways that others can't. As someone who has watched a lot of basketball in his life, I've never seen players do the things Curry casually shows off on a nightly basis.

Beyond Curry's heroics and Green's defense -- as if you needed anything else -- the Warriors' take-away from this game should be a confidence boost in their own resiliency and depth. The Mavs are a high-quality opponent who the Warriors could face in the first or second round of the playoffs. Despite spotting them a 20+ point lead in the first quarter, the Warriors methodically worked their way back, largely through tenacious defense and well-executed team offense. Curry's explosion in the third quarter put them ahead, but he had help in the quarter from a hot shooting Marreese Speights who stepped up when Curry was increasingly smothered, and also helped pull Tyson Chandler away from the rim. Curry's run continued in the fourth, but the Warriors also worked to get Andre Iguodala and Leandro Barbosa high-percentage looks in the space Curry helped create. This wasn't a game where the Warriors stood around and watched Curry explode. Curry did his damage within the Warriors' team offense, and his teammates kept working to stay on even as he was going off.

There's no denying the radiant brilliance of Curry's offense, but this game was won as much with the team's dirty work as the Sportscenter moments. The Warriors took the rebound battle (46-42) despite Chandler's 17 boards. They were even on turnovers (8-8) after the disastrous first quarter. They gave up 42 points in that ugly quarter on 65% shooting, but then retaliated in the fourth by holding the Mavs to 16 points on 19% from the field. The Mavs' high-powered offense didn't score a field goal for the first 3 minutes or last 3 minutes of the fourth quarter. So yes, this game was a validation of Curry's status as an MVP front-runner. I'm impressed by how many players and coaches openly express their awe at what he's accomplishing. But this game also was a validation of the Warriors as a maturing and increasingly battle-tested team.

]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2015/02/04/stephen-currys-casual-brilliance-warriors-128-mavs-114/feed/718Tested (Warriors 111, Bulls 113)http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2015/01/28/tested-warriors-111-bulls-113/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2015/01/28/tested-warriors-111-bulls-113/#commentsWed, 28 Jan 2015 09:49:10 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/?p=4633The Warriors have 39 more games to prepare for the playoffs. Their match-up against the Bulls on Tuesday gave them a mid-season taste of what to expect. The Warriors need to be ready for teams that don't wave the white… Continue Reading →

]]>The Warriors have 39 more games to prepare for the playoffs. Their match-up against the Bulls on Tuesday gave them a mid-season taste of what to expect. The Warriors need to be ready for teams that don't wave the white flag after one big first half run, for physical and focused basketball, and for tight finishes when one poorly-timed mistake can be the difference between winning and losing. After Stephen Curry mused this weekend on whether the Warriors were bored with their competition, Tom Thibodeau's brutally effective defense got Curry's attention. Some may point to Curry's late turnover as the mistake that cost the Warriors this game -- and they wouldn't be entirely wrong -- but that reductionist approach ignores a variety of other struggles the Warriors faced and pays no respect to Chicago's inspired performance.

Before we pick apart the Warriors first home loss in months, one caveat. The Bulls are a deep and well-coached team that clearly wanted to prove a point after the Warriors dispatched them in Chicago earlier this season. Concern over the Warriors' performance should be proportional to appreciation for the Bulls' performance. Chicago made big plays on both offense and defense -- the Rose jumper in OT, the Curry trap at the end of regulation, pretty much Pau Gasol's entire night when not matched up against Draymond Green -- despite generally high-quality play from the Warriors. That's not to say the Warriors have no room to improve, but the Bulls played too good a game to be omitted from the narrative on why the Warriors lost.

From a Warriors-centric perspective, the team's two main weaknesses throughout this season -- turnovers and Andrew Bogut's health -- played major roles in the team's frustrating demise. But even with both those issues, there are signs of progress.

The Warriors only had 13 turnovers, and 2 in the fourth quarter, but the final one was a killer. Up by 1 with 18 seconds to go, Lee grabbed a rebound off a missed Bulls' shot and swung the ball to Curry. Curry attempted to advance the ball into the front court to run out the clock, but the Bulls sprung a trap on him. Rather than calling time-out (and with Kerr not making the call from the sideline), Curry attempted to get rid of the ball, only to have it deflected and stolen. It wasn't a dribble-off-your-foot turnover or even a fancy-one-handed-pass turnover. It was just an unwise decision made in a split second under heavy defensive pressure. The more the Warriors are put in the position to make those decisions, the better they will become at making them. No one needed to tell Curry afterwards the error in his ways. After Kirk Hinrich converted the turnover into a three pointer, Curry spent the first 30 seconds of the next timeout bent over and staring at his shoes. In a season when the Warriors have often looked untouchable, it was a harsh reminder that they are not. Curry, Kerr and others learned the hard way that there's a fine line between brilliant improvisation and recklessness. That's not to suggest in any way that Curry needs to be reined in -- he's moved far beyond that talk -- but as he matures with more big game experience, he'll hone his instincts for when to push things and when to pull back.

The good news on Bogut's most recent absence is that it's due to a temporary illness, not a structural ailment. That's little comfort to the Warriors, who responded as they usually do to Bogut's unavailability. The rim was more readily reachable, leading opponents to drive more and convert more second chance looks. Rose feasted off penetration, while Gasol and Noah logged several put-backs where they simply reached over short defenders. At the other end, Bogut's absence meant that picks were harder to come by and more likely to slip early, making the already-tough Bulls defense even harder to shake. The ball movement died off during key periods of the game because the Bulls simply smothered all the various options the Warriors present to the initiator of the offense. If Bogut is not healthy for the playoffs, his absence in the middle will be the Warriors' single greatest vulnerability.

That said, David Lee used Bogut's absence to get an extended run and finally rebuild some of his offensive momentum. Against the Celtics on Sunday, Lee looked to be the creator off the bench but didn't call his own number much (and didn't have others calling it for him). On Tuesday against the Bulls, it appeared the coaching staff had adjusted the game plan to ensure lots of looks for Lee running at the basket. He did a nice job of capitalizing (10-17 for 24 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists), releasing off pick-and-rolls and spinning off of low-block post-ups in a manner that makes the most of his speed and ambedexterity. On defense, Lee was good enough. He cheated a few times for rebounds, leaving his man open, but also repeatedly got his body in front of Gasol and others to deny easy looks. He was encouragingly engaged, talking over assignments with Green during breaks, and showed no reluctance to mix it up in the paint with the Bulls' bigs. The Warriors desperately need Bogut to be healthy for the second half of the season and the playoffs. But it's also useful for the Warriors to undertake an occasional extended-minute test of their back-up plan, in preparation for if/when Bogut isn't available.

Ultimately, there's solace to be taken in the fact that the Warriors made a variety of mistakes throughout the game and still came within a Klay Thompson bank shot of prevailing (or at least extending the game into second OT). The Warriors rarely will go an entire second half without hitting a three. Even against Chicago's defense, Curry, Thompson and Green managed a few wide-open looks that simply did not fall. (Cue the "make or miss league" soundbite.) The team hopefully also won't shoot 50% (or lower) from the line in any other game this season. Finally, Kerr likely will put more focus on who exactly should be in his closing line-up, since a little bit more hands-on tinkering may be useful depending on the opponent. There's room for improvement in both execution and strategy, and the Warriors have plenty of time to work on the skills and resources they'll need to be the best possible playoff team. In the meantime, while the win streaks may be broken, the skills the Warriors need to win consistently at an elite level are only growing stronger.